The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety

Read The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety by Kyle Chayka

Kyle Chayka writes about “algorithmic anxiety,” the uneasiness that arises when recommendation systems on social-media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok anticipate our desires.

When we talk about “the algorithm,” we might be conflating recommender systems with online surveillance, monopolization, and the digital platforms’ takeover of all of our leisure time—in other words, with the entire extractive technology industry of the twenty-first century. Bucher told me that the idea of the algorithm is “a proxy for technology, and people’s relationships to the machine.” It has become a metaphor for the ultimate digital Other, a representation of all of our uneasiness with online life.

The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety via John Naughton

Our idea of algorithm is mixed up with other types of manipulation.